Trivia

Cancelled SNES port

There was a SNES port of the Amiga version, Super Shadow of the Beast, developed by IGS, shown on the Summer CES 1992, but it never made it to the shelves. There is a ROM floating around the net, and according to some sources it's completely playable. The main differences seem to be in difficulty, level design, and graphics.

Cheat code

The C64 version's cheat code is an anagram of the game's title, other than the number of spaces.

Genesis port

Like with Gods, another well-known Amiga game, the Mega Drive/Genesis port had the difficulty level increased when the refresh rate was increased from 50 MHz to 60 MHz (to match the NTSC console) without changing how long each frame was displayed, making the game faster. However, as the PAL console runs slower, the speed matches the original Amiga version more closely.

The Japanese Mega Drive version of Shadow of the Beast, while essentially based on the original Genesis port, has a number of differences. It was released by Victor Musical Industries, which had previously published the PC Engine version (developed by Psygnosis for VMI). As a result, Victor borrowed some elements from the PC Engine version (like the larger character and the more balanced gameplay) and transplanted them into the Mega Drive one. Some backgrounds (like the trees) were also retouched to lessen the tiling pattern look of the Genesis version. There is also a bit more blood in some places.